By -

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts

A Request - For Human Kindness Sake

By -
Image
  Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts struggled  to hold back her tears at Prime Ministers Questions 5.1.2022 when she spoke of her fear that her mother's dementia diagnosis  would also mean separation from her family when she was moved into a care home. Now Liz is one of four MPs ready to introduce legislation  to ensure we all have the right to maintain contact with a family carer wherever we are in the health and care system Today, Monday May 8 th is National Help-Out day -- which may well mean that by tomorrow, when this blogpost is published (March 9th 2023), everyone’s impulses to benevolence will be as exhausted as the final damp squib from a village playing-field party. So maybe I’ll pitch this request as enlightened self-interest... If you have a stroke today, or a traumatic brain injury, if you develop a cognitive disability (such as a dementia) or any one of the array of incurable illnesses which will make you progressively less and less able to fend for yourself
Read more

Misogyny and Bengali Children’s Poetry by Dipika Mukherjee

By -
Image
When the invitation came through Facebook Messenger as a friend request, I saw a young man, no friends in common. Populated as facebook is by shirtless wonders peddling sleazy messages, I was about to hit Decline , but decided to check the message first. It was from the Festival Director of the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, inviting me to moderate a session after the screening of the latest film by one of the most acclaimed stars of the Bengali screen, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, on September 22, 2018.  I am glad I got to view Shonar Pahar, The Golden Mountain . I also had to think about Bengali cinema -- and Bengali poetry -- in a way I haven’t consciously processed in many years. Bengali cinema is recognized worldwide for the towering genius of Satyajit Ray, and Shonar Pahar also pays tribute to a childlike wonder about the world. Parambrata Chattopadhyay beautifully weaves a story about the power of the imagination to create an alternative joyful universe even
Read more

A Few Discreet Words About Caesar's Penis--Reb MacRath

By -
Image
Veni, vidi...Wiki! Not long ago I had the all-time greatest Great Idea: one, born of total ignorance, that nearly tanked a novel. As you may have guessed from my opening line, my subject is Julius Caesar. But you might not have guessed from the title that my Great Idea entailed his being reborn as a penis. Don't laugh, please, I beg you. I saw no way around this, even though showing JC as a 'dick' might lead some to think that I've written a spoof. In fact, it's a serious thriller. Without giving the plot away, I can say this: I needed JC's ghost, today, remembering his nights with Cleopatra on her fabled golden barge. There  was the heart of my book--a ghost trying for 2000 years to relive that lost boogie with Liz. And I'd begun to run with this when my memory corrected me: Mark Anthony, not JC, was on the barge with Cleo. And this was after JC's death. What the hell was I to do, lacking the good sense to check memory's 'facts
Read more

Do Love my Dulu-Dulu! by Reb MacRath

By -
Image
The experts like to tell us to shovel research by the ton...then add a teaspoon to our work. Authenticity and seasoning. And there's something to be said for that. Failure to keep the old adage in mind results in bloated epics with chapters devoted to ancient Roman plumbing, the story itself getting lost on the way. Purists might even add that the teaspoon of research that is used be stamped 100% Organic. That is, the author must not pre-decide to add a particular bit. Well, three cheers for the Purists. Even with my love of ancient Rome, I'm less likely to finish a history by Colleen McCullough than a Sub Rosa mystery by Steven Saylor. I feel crushed in the former but alive, in the second, on the streets of Rome. And yet I'm here to tell you: I find it impossible, sometimes, to write or eat 100% Organically. My new Boss MacTavin mystery, Seattle Red, led me into the world of alternative weapons. For, in one of the most dangerous cities on earth, Boss is forb
Read more

Rejoice When Fireflies Outshine the Glare of Showboats -- by Reb MacRath

By -
Image
Get this: over the course of a couple of days two handfuls of distinctive words soared above my news feed like wildings of fireflies. The first one took me by surprise. It had nothing to do with writing. And it was  almost buried in comments on an ad for a pricey cardio test. But, at a glance, the author's personality stood out...she took a stance against the medical establishment...and ended with a war cry: I don't need this. I eat fruit and vegetables. So stuff your test. I came across these words  in the lobby of a Tucson cardio medical mill, where scores of us were processed, billed in advance, and then herded to assorted rooms for exam--then scheduled for further batteries of tests when some of us at least were feeling reasonably well. While I thought about this, I reflected on how these 13 words had led me to seek out the author's FB page, where I filed a Friend request quickly. The next day I chanced on a quote from a poet mourning 'a San Francisco that sadly is
Read more